There are several news stories today that indicate that Sony/BMG will start selling DRM-free digital downloads sometime during the first quarter of 2008. They are the last of the “big four” record companies to make the move. EMI, Vivendi Universal, and Warner Music have already started or soon will. The Amaon.com mp3 download site continues to grow and continues to become a realistic competitor to iTunes. Let’s hear it for competition!
Chandos mp3s to be sold by Amazon
I was browsing through the growing mp3 download site on amazon.com the other day, looking at the upcoming new releases, and I discovered that beginning on January 8th, the entire Chandos catalog will be available as DRM-free downloads on Amazon. For several months Chandos has been selling songs on iTunes with DRM, but for more than a year they have sold them on their own download site without DRM. The only problem with that is that it is a U.K. site and charges only in GBP, so U.S. buyers pay a rather stiff premium for the privilege of a low US$ value, plus a currency exchange fee on your credit card. Chandos has a vast collection of all kinds of (classical) music, but it is especially strong in British music.
The download scene has now reached the point where if I can buy something DRM-free from another source than iTunes, that’s what I’m doing. I’m still waiting for Warner Music (with its Nonesuch label) and Sony BMG to get with the program, especially for classical music.
Deutsche Grammophon launches download site
The grandaddy of all high-class classical music recording companies, Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft has today opened up their online download site, which features non-DRM mp3 files encoded at a lavish 320kbps. The site has available for download most of DGG’s latest releases (including the Cleveland Orchestra’s new recording of the Beethoven 9th Symphony, which up to now has only been available for download from iTunes in a lower-resolution format with DRM protection. I’m glad I waited….) and a host of classic recordings, many of which have been out of print in CD format and are now available as downloads.
Registration for the site is easy, although you do have to surrender your name and email address to them. If you sign up for their email newsletter they give you one free track download. (I chose the “Adagietto” movement from Mahler’s Symphony no. 5, performed by the acclaimed Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, conducted by the hot young composer Gustavo Dudamel. All went smoothly with the download, although it was a bit slow–I can imagine that there may be a run on the DGG servers on their first day of operation.)
This is big! DGG is following the lead of EMI, Chandos, and some other smaller labels. We can hope that the other branches of the Universal Music Group (Decca main among them) will follow DGG’s first step. Warner Music and Sony BMG, where are you? Come on in–the classical music audience isn’t going to steal you blind.
